Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a lawsuit on Wednesday (Feb. 12) against NBCUniversal, claiming the company defamed him with the Peacock documentary Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.
According to documents filed in New York state court, Combs’ lawsuit claims the documentary — which debuted on Peacock in January — knowingly defamed him by making false murder and sex trafficking allegations, among other claims, which his attorneys say there is no credible evidence to support.
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“The entire premise of the Documentary assumes that Mr. Combs has committed numerous heinous crimes, including serial murder, rape of minors, and sex trafficking of minors, and attempts to crudely psychologize him,” the lawsuit reads. “It maliciously and baselessly jumps to the conclusion that Mr. Combs is a ‘monster’ and ‘an embodiment of Lucifer’ with ‘a lot of similarities’ to Jeffrey Epstein.”
According to the lawsuit, the documentary “maliciously” claims that Diddy played a role in the deaths of his ex-wife Kim Porter, Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace and Dwight “Heavy D” Myers.
The documentary “shamelessly advances conspiracy theories that lack any foundation in reality,” the suit adds, “repeatedly insinuating that Mr. Combs is a serial killer because it cannot be a ‘coincidence’ that multiple people in Mr. Combs’s orbit have died.”
Combs is seeking $100 million in damages from the multimedia giant.
“As described in today’s lawsuit, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, Peacock TV, LLC, and Ample LLC made a conscious decision to line their own pockets at the expense of truth, decency, and basic standards of professional journalism,” Diddy’s attorney, Erica Wolff, said in a statement. “Grossly exploiting the trust of their audience and racing to outdo their competition for the most salacious Diddy exposé, Defendants maliciously and recklessly broadcast outrageous lies in Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.”
Wolff continued: “In the purported documentary, Defendants accuse Mr. Combs of horrible crimes, including serial murder and sexual assault of minors — knowing that there is no evidence to support them. In making and broadcasting these falsehoods, among others, Defendants seek only to capitalize on the public’s appetite for scandal without any regard for the truth and at the expense of Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial. Mr. Combs brings this lawsuit to hold Defendants accountable for the extraordinary damage their reckless statements have caused.”
Billboard has reached out to NBCUniversal for comment.
Combs has remained behind bars since his arrest in September on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He’s accused of being the face of a multi-faceted criminal enterprise with the goal of satisfying his sexual fantasies, including by hosting so-called “freak-off” parties. The disgraced hip-hop mogul has repeatedly been denied bail and will stay in the custody of Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center until his trial begins on May 5. He faces life in prison if convicted on all charges. In addition to his criminal case, Combs has been hit with dozens of lawsuits alleging sexual assault and other crimes.